Earlier, I broke down the course at the Golf Club of Houston and some of the angles to look at when selecting what players to roster on your daily fantasy lineups which can be found here. Today, I give you the main guys who I’m considering for my cash game lineup, as well as some pivots that I’ll be looking to go overweight on in tournaments.
As always, I utilize the RotoQL PGA Lineup Optimizer (which you can try free for 3 days!) to make sure that my player exposures are exactly how I want them to be, and use the Trending Player tool to get a read on what players the public is interested in.
Cash Plays
Rickie Fowler - $11,500
If you want to spend up in cash games then Rickie Fowler is easily the guy I would trust the most to go out an try to contend and win this week in Houston rather than simply use this event purely as Masters prep. Rickie has finished within the top-10 at this event in three of the last 4 years, and this is a great week for Rickie to find his normal solid putting stroke after struggling a bit on the greens over the past few weeks. After almost every other elite player has won this year, would anyone be surprised to see Rickie get in back in the winner's circle this week?
Rafa Cabrera-Bello - $9,300
The Houston Open has a long track record of having historically below-average putters win the event and this year that guy could be Rafa Cabrera-Bello. Like Daniel Berger, Rafa is in that price tier that I’m looking to build a lot of my lineups around. He is striking the ball great right now and was playing awesome at the matchplay but just ran into a few other hot players in CH3 and Phil. Rafa is already in the Masters field, but I don’t have too many motivation concerns with him never having won on the PGA Tour before. A final note is that he also won the Scottish Open the week before last year’s The Open Championship.
James Hahn - $7,100
I’ll always look to target Hahn at longer tracks where off-the-tee game is crucial and I won’t be going away from Hahn this week with him in good form. Hahn has been very consistent this year, going 10/10 in cuts made with most of those finishing coming inside the top-35. Hahn doesn’t have a great history at this event but his game should be a good fit on paper so I’m willing to take a look at him on my cash game lineup if I decide to spend up for Rickie or possibly Justin Rose if you prefer him instead. Hahn has great win equity for a player in this price range and with cash games getting more and more competitive, Hahn is a great risk-reward option even in a cash lineup.
Tournament Plays
Daniel Berger - $9,400
If you’re like me and looking to fade some of the more elite players in the field in tournaments, then starting your lineup with a guy like Daniel Berger makes a ton of sense. Berger has posted back-to-back fifth place finishes at this event and should fly under the radar coming off a poor showing in the match play. However Berger is just a bad match-play player as it is so there really should be a ton of concern about last week. Public opinion on Berger seems to have soured a bit based on his lack of top-10 finishes and the solid play of seemingly all the rest of the young players on tour, but make no mistake Daniel Berger is a guy to keep an eye on this week and going into Augusta.
Byeong-Hun An - $8,700
Benny An has been up and down throughout this season but has shown some great upside and his game is a nice fit for Houston. He is long off the tee and should be able to take advantage of the Par 5’s on this layout, which helps his fantasy scoring upside. Ben An is another guy who is historically a horrendous putter and who may be helped by the ease of these greens within 10-feet. While he is a known commodity in the fantasy golf world, his ownership will continue to stay lower than other guys in this price range such as Matt Kuchar, Tony Finau, Charles Howell, and Jason Dufner.
Sean O’Hair - $7,200
The field this week offers some interesting deep plays in the low $7,000’s and for tournaments a guy that I really like is Sean O’Hair. He is playing some nice golf right now, with fishes of T-12 and T-7 at the Honda Classic and Bay Hill and has a decent track record in Houston. He has posted finishes of T-10 and T-49 here the past 2 years and should be less than 5% owned in large field tournaments.
Other Punt Plays to Consider:
- Jason Kokrak - $7,200
- Brandon Harkins - $7,000
- Martin Flores - $6,900
- Nick Wantey - $6,800
- Robert Garrigus - $6,600
Fantasy golf can be one of the most fun and profitable sports in Daily Fantasy and there's plenty of strategy that goes into putting together a winning DFS lineup, and the best place to start is RotoQL’s DFS tools. Our RotoQL PGA Lineup Optimizer is a massive advantage when you're building lineups, regardless of contest size or site. I'm always there to help, too, so check me out on Twitter (@DFSBenj) for even more NFL, NBA, MLB and PGA daily fantasy content.
